Chuck Todd asked Amy Klobuchar “what about Bill?”. She dodged question and talked about what congress should do to change rules to prevent sexual misconduct in the future. He asked again. She acknowledged that Trump is legitimately president and talked again about changing congress rules. In other words, let’s not relitigate the past but focus on the future.

Barabara Boxer said she gave a speech early in her career which went over well. Afterwards the male leader commended her, then said he’d like to “associate with her”. Another male said he’d like to associate with her too. Obvious sexual innuendo but you would have had to have been there. Boxer said her face turned red. Afterwards, her mentor didn’t understand, thought that was complimentary. It’s not obvious what’s disrespectful, but if women don’t appreciate men making innuendos about having sex, then we shouldn’t do that. We need more examples about just what’s okay and what’s not.

It seems like there should be more focus on just what behavior is not acceptable, and preventing that in the future. Not so much punishing people for doing it in the past.

Not that it isn’t a good thing for Kevin Spacey and Bill Cosby to be at the least banished. You Alabamians vote for Roy Moore? I don’t quite get that but if that’s what you want for senator, I guess that’s your decision.

Trump was Republican tactics taken to the next level. Roy Moore is taking it one level higher. Any news story he doesn’t like he calls “fake news”. The “elites” in Washington just don’t like him… Maybe this is at an exaggerated enough level enough people will now see it and be more skeptical.

1. Every society produces an idiot or three – but in this case, we’ve got tens of millions of Americans willingly (or even eagerly) writing off news that they don’t like as “fake news”. That’s bad.

2. Ever since the 60’s, I’ve encountered time and again lamentations about the dumbing down of our schools and our society. And something about “infantilism”. Perhaps we are finally seeing the accumulative effects?

3. Could Trump have gotten away with fluffing off Walter Cronkite back in the 60’s and 70’s? I don’t think so. But since then, our media has been mixing news with gossip and sensation – where ‘news’ have morphed into infotainment. If the pros don’t take their profession and themselves seriously — perhaps they have made themselves that much easier to being undermined?

The media relies on ads to make money and viewers watching ads. Sensational stories get more viewers.

Because of technology it’s a lot cheaper to publish. There are many more sources. Conventional income streams for media are drying up. Lots of competition. Many media will go bankrupt. New media will figure out how to make money in this new world.

I don’t think it’s fair to blame the media, it’s just a consequence of technology. Hopefully this will all get sorted out

It would help if politicians didn’t promote any obviously fake story just because it increases their poll numbers in the short run

The more this all is publicized, the easier it will be for us to figure out what’s going on

I really don’t think people are this dumb. Instead, people are this loyal. It’s like when you hear something bad about your favorite sports team. You don’t want to believe it. You accept any denial of it. You stay loyal to your team. For many, the Republican “team” is practically even with their religion “team.” And anything needed to win is just fine.

What bugs me about this is the focus on identifying culprits and gossiping about them. Media sensationalizing for ad revenue. Politicians politicizing.

It seems like we need to talk about specific behaviors and relative badness. We shouldn’t avoid details because it’s uncomfortable to talk about. We shouldn’t just turn it into a witch hunt.

Putting your hand on someone else’s butt during a picture.

Asking sexual favors of people who depend on you for their career. What if someone occasionally makes ambiguous statements vs frequent aggressive? Sometimes a boss and subordinate get into a relationship, is that okay?

Asking younger people for sexual favors or actually doing it. Sex acts with someone under age should be prosecuted if there’s a case.

Doing sex acts without consent.

Physical injuries like bruises.

If it’s in private, then it can be “he said she said” so not prosecutable. What about if there are many people that have reported the same experience?

Publicly or legally attacking accusers.

If someone is accused, especially of more minor harassment, do they keep doing it? For example, sometimes men don’t realize how traumatic it is for women and they just need to be educated.

James O’Keefe, again, tried to scam a news organization into reporting fake news

A woman claimed, at age 16, to have had a pregnancy and abortion with Roy Moore. She took it to Washington Post.

If the Washington Post had reported this as real, then it would have put doubt into all the other stories about Roy Moore

James O’Keefe has done this multiple times in the past

Someone else did this with a story about W. A fake document claimed that W was AWOL. Or was it about drunk driving, I forget. The document was reported as real. Then it was determined to be fake so the journalist that reported it was defamed, fired. The whole issue about W going AWOL was then dropped. Except that there is other evidence he actually was AWOL.

So, that is an effective political tactic – if your candidate has done something bad, scam a news organization into a fake report about it, then expose that report as fake, then the whole issue goes away.

John Hockenberry, the host of The Takeaway was let go for sexual harassment and bullying, although they didn’t give a cause at the time (pre Harvey Weinstein). Hockenberry ran his show like a fiefdom, bullying everyone, badger people to have sex, discriminated against non whites,…

Todd Zwillich was occasional fill in host and now the interim host, was interviewing one of his victims Suki Kim

But Zwillich had an idea what was happening and now regrets not speaking up. In the future he will try to do better.

Kim also complained that management had to have known but didn’t do anything about it. It was a successful show so they didn’t want to screw with it.

Anyway, this sort of discussion is more interesting than who the latest guy is and did they fire him.

This is a societal problem that we all are part of. It’s not obvious what to do about it. It’s much bigger than just firing a bunch of bad guys. Hopefully, we don’t just fire some people, then go back to the way it was and never address the bigger problem.